ATLAS TO SAHARA CHALLENGE 2011 - Conquered!

The third RifCom Charity Challenge Event saw a group of forty from Gibraltar, Spain and the UK travel deep into Morocco, hike 100km across the majestic Atlas Mountains and descend into the stunning Sahara desert!

“The 2011 November RifCom Charity Challenge was the toughest and longest event we’ve done so far” said RifCom Trustee Julian Camble “but in many ways it has also been the most popular, especially with the combination of a four day sponsored trek and then a three day optional extension.” The four day trek actually began on a Friday evening with a journey across the Straits to Tangier to catch “The Old Marrakech Express” sleeper train. Waking up in Marrakech, the forty-strong group then transferred by bus to a tiny village in the High Atlas Mountains where they joined their local support team of 23 men and 18 mules! The walking commenced with a precarious rope bridge crossing and a gruelling day-long ascent up narrow rocky paths. After climbing a vertical kilometre to a mountain plateau some 2,000 metres high near the snow-line, the group set up camp for the night. Hot mint tea and delicious food, which the cooking team seemed to magic out of nothing, replenished many exhausted bodies and everyone savoured their first evening and night in the middle of nowhere.

And so it went on the next day and the next, walking one of the most famous trails of the High Atlas amidst staggeringly impressive scenery. Often setting up camp in the dark and leaving the next morning at first light. The third day’s trekking was completed with the biggest challenge of all, the world-renowned “Tichka Pass” trail that hangs on the edge of a cliff-face and left everyone totally exhilarated by their achievement at reaching the top. The final day produced a complete change in scenery as the group descended from mountain into desert. Through deep, jagged valleys reminiscent of the Grand Canyon until eventually, some 100 kilometres after they began walking four days previously, they reached their destination of Ait BenHaddou (a world heritage site and scene of many a movie, including The Mummy and Gladiator!).

The “optional extension” (paid for from the participants' own pockets, not via fund-raising) saw the group give their feet a well earned rest and hop into mini-buses for an adventure that took them deeper into the beautiful Sahara. Travelling through the “Valley of Roses” and the “Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs”, across stone deserts and through oases, the group visited the staggering Todra Gorge before mounting camels that took them deep into the red Merzouga Dunes. Returning to Marrakech for an afternoon’s shopping in its vast markets, everyone then hopped back onto the night-train once more and headed back to Tangier and the ferry home.

It was an extraordinary experience for everyone and also an incredible success for the charity, with the event raising in excess of an amazing £27,000 in sponsorships (net of all costs). In fact, the event was enjoyed so much that many are already signing up for next year’s Challenge, due to take place from 19 to 28 October 2012!

RifCom would like to thank all of those who took part in the 2011 Challenge, all those who sponsored and supported them and to those behind the scenes, leading, guiding, cooking and carrying who made the whole event work so well.

If you wish to learn more about RifCom, or sign up for the Atlas to Sahara October 2012 Challenge, please contact the team.

For a participant's view of the event please click here for an account by Gillie Revill.

Please view the following Promotional Video, or visit our photo gallery.